A FWC full bench considering whether to make the country's first gig economy award has been told that "the world's moved on" for food delivery workers since the creation 12 years ago of two instruments held by unions and employers to already cover the occupation.
In a sign of the continuing uncertainty surrounding COVID-19's impact on workplaces, the FWC will consider extending millions of award-covered employees' entitlement to two weeks unpaid "pandemic leave" to the end of June next year.
Just 20% of employers have told an FWC survey they offer paid family and domestic violence leave, while Monash University says "victim-survivor" research shows a minimum 14-days' paid leave is needed alongside "culturally-safe and trauma-informed" workplaces.
The ACTU's bid for 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave has been bolstered by new FWC-commissioned research indicating that a third of recent agreements have a paid entitlement and half of those deals provide at least the quantum the peak body is seeking.
A FWC full bench's insertion of a minimum wage guarantee in the horticulture award to ensure pieceworkers earn at least $25.41 an hour is "one of the most significant industrial decisions of modern times", according to the AWU.
A FWC full bench has held early childhood teachers should receive a pay rise of up to 13.6% from the start of next year as part of an IEU work value claim, after the union reached a consent position with some employers and others failed to back up affordability concerns.
The FWC has introduced two new forms aimed at smoothing the processes around casual conversion disputes and addressing agreement anomalies arising from new casual employee definitions.
The FWC has questioned the "utility" of hearing an IBM software engineer's application to insert up to five days paid vaccination leave into "Schedule X" in the professional services award, as the rapid uptake of inoculations and the schedule's expiry at the end of the year means there might be "little, if any, work" for it do.
Queensland's Industrial Court has reversed a single member decision letting external lawyers represent the State Government at a QIRC directions hearing on a Together Queensland award variation bid, finding only a full bench had the power to do so.
